Reminder: Cutting-and-Pasting Photos from the Internet Is Hazardous to Your Legal Health–Grecco v. Valuewalk
This is a mostly straightforward case of cutting-and-pasting a photo from the Internet. These cases don’t normally produce detailed federal court rulings because the defendant usually doesn’t have great defenses and prefers to settle early. This defendant decided to fight…
Is the DTSA Ex Parte Seizure Provision Constitutional?
The Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) has been law for 2 1/2 years. At this point, it’s pretty clear the DTSA ex parte seizure provision never belonged in the statute. Courts have ordered only a few ex parte seizures, and…
Section 230 Doesn’t Support Habeus Petition by ‘Revenge’ Pornographer–Bollaert v. Gore
As you may recall, Kevin Bollaert ran UGotPosted, which published third-party submitted nonconsensual pornography, and ChangeMyReputation.com, which offered depicted individuals a “pay-to-remove” option. Bollaert appeared multiple times in my inventory of nonconsensual pornography enforcement actions. Bollaert’s conduct was disgusting, and…
Angie’s List Defeats Lawsuit Over Alleged “Pay-to-Play” Rankings–Strauss v. Angie’s List
Strauss spent over $200,000 on Angie’s List advertising over about a decade. After he stopped advertising, he claimed Angie’s List treated him poorly, including deindexing him from its search, then degrading his positioning in search results, and other malfeasance. All…
Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Airbnb Has the Potential to Change Online Marketplaces–Harrington v. Airbnb
Airbnb has admitted that some of its vendors have engaged in racial discrimination. It really had no choice in this admission, after both empirical and anecdotal evidence demonstrated it. Plaintiffs sued Airbnb for violating Oregon’s discrimination law. The magistrate judge…
Seventh Different Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Material Support to Terrorists” Fails–Taamneh v. Twitter
By my count, this is the seventh different lawsuit concluding that social media providers are not liable for materially supporting terrorists (Cain, Crosby, Fields, Force/Cohen, Gonzalez, Pennie, Taamneh). [If I’m missing any, please let me know.] This is an impressive…
Section 230 Protects Twitter’s Decision to Suspend User’s Account–Mezey v. Twitter
This decision is from July but just showed up in Westlaw. Mezey sued Twitter for suspending his account. The opinion doesn’t provide any background about the account or why Twitter suspended it. The court easily dismissed the lawsuit on Section…
Swedish Court Misunderstands Memes (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Stacey Lantagne Memes are everywhere. Part of the essential communicative fabric of social media, it’s hard to imagine Twitter or Instagram or even texting without them. They get used to react to matters of national debate, sports…
An Analysis of Title II of Public Law 115-264: The Classics Protection and Access Act (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Tyler Ochoa On October 11, 2018, President Trump signed into law H.R. 1551, the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, which became Public Law 115-364, 132 Stat. 3676. The Act contains three titles pertaining to copyright law. Title…
Call for Papers/Participation: 9th Annual Internet Law Works-in-Progress, SCU, March 2, 2019
We invite your participation in the Ninth Annual Internet Law Works-in-Progress conference at Santa Clara University School of Law, March 2, 2019. The conference series is co-sponsored by the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law and the Innovation Center for Law and Technology at the New…